Letterpress and art printing in Milan Italy

I am traveling to Milan, Italy later this spring and wondered if anyone has a suggestion for visiting a printing operation that does letterpress and/or art printing such as etching prints. I like to look in on what others are doing when away from home. Thanks.

Not that this is very helpful, but there is a shop that I know of in Senigallia, which is kind of near Rimini. I don’t know the name of the shop, but Senigallia is a small community so it shouldn’t be that hard to find.

There is a little old fellow who runs it. I don’t speak Italian, so I couldn’t gain access to the shop. He seemed very friendly, just had no idea what I was asking him :-)

You also may want to contact Kyle at Baltimore Print Studios. He spent some time in northern Italy last year and may have some info.

A word to the wise, letterpress in Italian is called simply “tipographia” there are many small shops in almost every town/city in Italy that letterpress and will typically have a generic sign outside that simply says “tipographia.” Italians are notoriously friendly, gifted artisans and always proud of their passions, I would imagine that they would almost always welcome with open arms a curious visitor to their studios.

You might check out the Imprimerie Nationale — I don’t know to what extent they are open to the public but there is an extensive collection of French printing history materials and they still cut type by hand. There was a great exhibit from there at the Grolier Club in New York recently — it may still be there.

Not letterpress directly, but the paper museum Museo dell Carta e dell Filigrana in Fabriano is well worth visiting. It is housed in the ancient Monastery of S. Domenico. Fabriano is south-west of Ancona. http://www.museodellacarta.com/default.asp?lang=eng

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